Abstract

Many American cities were designed with the automobile in mind, a prioritization that has often led to congestion and pollution. How then, can we move away from our reliance on the car in our cities? In new research which examines transport policies in Boulder, Colorado over a twenty year period, researchers at the University of Colorado found that when the city government increased the ‘supply’ of infrastructure for bikes, pedestrians and other forms of sustainable transit, single-occupancy auto-use fell by nearly 10 percent. Lead author, Alejandro Henao, argues that other cities can learn from Boulder’s focus on developing policies and infrastructure that expand the number and capacity of sustainable transportation choices.